Resident Evil: Nightmare's Requiem
by Lone Warwolf
Summary: During her fight for survival within Raccoon City, Claire Redfield finds a small group of teenagers who have been taking the fight against the undead to the streets. Claire joins them in hopes of not only finding Leon, but also a way out...


DISCLAIMER: Resident Evil belongs to Capcom; I do not own it.

CHAPTER ONE: SONATA

Monsters howled in the night. The song of the undead. After hearing it for so long, Claire was beginning to forget what a regular night in Raccoon City sounded like. And it had only been two nights…

She was alone, which was terrifying in itself. Her 15mm handgun had a decent amount of ammunition, but not enough to last through the night if she ran into large groups of those creatures. She was screwed if she ran into a large group of them anyway…

Taking her time and analyzing her surroundings as she went, Claire made her way slowly down the streets of Raccoon City, checking around every corner, every dumpster, and every mailbox. She stepped into the main street and her heart got a little lighter. Never in her entire life had she been given such a sense of hope from a simple neon sign. The Weapon Surplus Store was right across the street, a few doors down. Claire looked to the left, seeing nothing but a few derelict cars and some trash blowing into the street from a passing breeze, blowing as it saw fit. She looked to the right, in the direction of the store, and saw a single zombie shuffling down the road, bumping into overturned trashcans and anything else that lay in its way.

'_If there's one, there are bound to be more…'_ Claire thought, her eyes narrowing in concentration. She was debating whether or not to risk shooting the thing or just making her way around it. There was a clean path around the monster, but it would involve taking a roundabout trip. Claire swallowed hard and made sure the safety on her gun was off before heading into the street. The monster spotted her almost immediately and began shambling her way. Claire zigzagged between the number of stopped cars and in a matter of moments, found herself not only halfway to her destination, but also passing the zombie. Something slammed on her foot, catching on her pant leg, almost tripping her. Claire let out a gasp as the zombie stuck its head out from under the beamer, moaning deeply. Claire kicked the monster's head, the heel of her boot crunching into the skull with a loud _SQUELCH_!

Claire heard more moans and cursed under her breath, breaking into as much of a run as she could. She made it to the front door and tried the knob, thanking God above that it was unlocked. She threw the door open and entered the room, unintentionally slamming the door shut behind her. The dim light above the door flickered for a second, threatening to go out, but it maintained power, showing the room to be a rather disheveled mess with boxes of ammunition and bullets strewn around the counter and floor. There was a large case with a glass door that had been shattered sometime with a few older looking shotguns in it, all of which were hardly in the rack.

Claire looked to her left and spotted a large crate. She stepped away from the door and pushed the crate, which was heavier than it looked, in front of the door. One of the monsters was slapping against the door, causing the wood to creak under the strain, but after a few moments, the zombie quit its assault on the door and, Claire hoped, had gone off to look for a tasty rat or something similar. Anything but her. With an exasperated sigh, Claire checked her gun, just for good measure. She opened up the pockets on her vest and put a couple of boxes of 15mm Parabellum rounds in the two pockets. The redhead spotted a shine near the cash register, which, oddly enough, didn't look like any kind of coin. Claire took the few steps to the area of counter on which the register sat and reached out, grabbing the bronze lighter and turning it over in her hand. There was a wolf etched into the front of it, the brand name etched under the animal.

"Who're you?"

Claire gave a start as she heard the voice. She looked up to see a worn teenager standing in the doorway, what looked like an M-16 in her hands and aimed right at Claire. There was a fire in her eyes, one that meant business. She was somewhere just above 5 foot tall with sharp blue eyes and boyishly short brown hair that hung around her face in waves, parted to the side. She wore a simple black t-shirt, the insignia of some college printed on it in white, and a pair of blue jeans with some running shoes. Her jeans were a bit dingy, the sign of obvious wear. Other than that and being generally tired, she seemed safe enough.

"Who are you? If I have to ask again, I'll just assume that you've been bitten." the girl said, lifting the gun slightly to aim at Claire's face.

"My name's Claire. Claire Redfield. And I'm not infected." she answered, raising her hands, her handgun in the right, the lighter she'd just found in the left. The girl with the M-16 looked at her assessing before lowering her weapon. She rolled her shoulders and gave Claire a half-smile.

"Hey, Claire. Please step into my office."

The girl turned and walked into the door behind the counter. Claire lowered her hands, shoving the lighter in her back pocket and putting the safety on her gun. She walked behind the counter and through the door to find a group of teenagers there, all of them joking amongst themselves, a couple playing cards. The girl with the M-16, the leader, it seemed, was still standing, leaning against the back wall next to an iron door with a small slit at the top that had what seemed to be a street view.

"Hey, guys. This is Claire. She says she's clean."

""Says she's clean"? Did you actually check, or are you just going to take her word for it?" one of the others asked, standing up. He was taller than the other girl, his hair a few inches shorter, and a sandy blond. His eyes here a soft blue behind his glasses as he held his handgun tightly in his fist. "Did you check, Val?"

"No, Ian, I didn't check. Dude, she had enough sense to notice the lighter by the register and shove it in her pocket. How many people who've been bitten have you seen with that kind of lucidity?" "Val" asked, turning her head to give Ian a look that screamed for him to use some common sense. One of the girls seated on the ground stood up and held out a hand.

"Well, Claire, it's nice to meet you. I'm Brittany." she greeted, smiling broadly. She had a dazzling smile, Claire noted, and her brown hair went just past her shoulders. Her hazel eyes flashed warmly, perfectly complimenting her smile. Claire shook her hand, the girl's cheer taking her by surprise. Val walked over herself as Brittany sat down and resumed her game of cards. She held out her own hand and gave Claire's a firm shake.

"I'm Valerie. I guess I kind of head up this operation. I was the one with all of the survival plans and stuff. Everyone kind of went along with me. We've gotten far with our combined effort. The paranoid kid over there's Ian. He's like my little brother. Don't take offense to anything he says, he really doesn't mean it. He just wants to make sure we're not putting ourselves in trouble. You met Brittany. She actually had to travel a bit to get here. I called her when everything went down, and she decided that it'd be better if she were here with me to help out and stuff. The chick she's playing cards with is Emily. She's a good friend of mine, and we were hanging out around the time that everything happened. The girl over there in the corner reading's my cousin, Deanna. She's not really social when she's stressed, and God knows we've been under a lot of it."

"How did you guys get here?" Claire asked, watching as Emily and Brittany continued to play their game, both of them occasionally slapping their hands down on the pile of cards between them and laughing. Valerie sighed, her eyes moving across the ceiling.

"We needed weapons. We had a baseball bat, a machete, and an old revolver to start with." she explained. She held up the M-16 and gave it a loving pat. "Feels good to upgrade."

"She's been cuddling that thing since she picked it up." Emily remarked. Brittany laughed and Ian gave a chuckle. At least they were all in good spirits.

"How about you, Claire?" Ian asked, his voice kinder than it had been before.

"Well, I needed some ammo. This place seemed like the place to go." Claire said, holding her handgun up. She slid it into her belt, right against the small of her back. Valerie smiled and nodded. There was a crash from the other room, the main part of the store. Everyone looked at the wooden door that Claire and Valerie had stepped through only minutes before.

"Everybody pack up. You have 30 seconds before we start moving." Valerie said, her voice gruff. She moved to the door and slid the coat hanger on the door to the side, revealing a peephole. She pressed her face against the door and examined the next room. With a huff, she stepped back.

"One of them got in, which means there's got to be more of them out there." Valerie reported, walking to the other end of the room and picking up a backpack and swinging it over her shoulder. Brittany grabbed her own backpack and Emily scooped up the cards and shoved them in her pocket before grabbing a sling bag and tossing it over her shoulder. Ian clipped on an ammo belt loaded full of shotgun shells and grabbed the riot shotgun from the crate next to him. Brittany stood, the magnum looking awkwardly big in her hands. Emily had an Uzi in her own hands, and Deanna was now standing next to her cousin, an odd-shaped object in a black bag over her shoulder.

"Ready?" Valerie asked. Everyone, Claire included, gave their nods. Valerie went to the iron door and peered out, the streetlights casting a light over her face. "Clear…for now. Let's move. Stay low and quiet. If one sees us, they'll start crawling out of the woodwork like…"

"Cockroaches." Brittany finished. Valerie smirked.

"Well, I was gonna say "Mexicans", but that works, too." she said. Emily laughed and they did a knuckle touch before Valerie opened the door and went into the street. Claire took up the rear, glad that she'd found a group of people who seemed to have a decent idea of what they were doing. Not to mention the fact that they all seemed to be in good spirits, everything considering. Claire hoped that together they'd all manage to find a way out of this living hell. There was only one way to find out.

…_Coming soon: CHAPTER TWO: DIRGE…_


End file.
